10 Major Mistakes WWE Has Made In 2016 (So Far)
9. A Rough Ride
At WrestleMania 32 on April 3rd, Zack Ryder shocked the world by winning the match, and getting a WrestleMania moment no one thought he’d ever see. And that’s the sole reason for Ryder being booked to win the showcase spotfest: it added unpredictability to a stale, predictable card.
Given that the man he replaced - Neville - doesn’t appear to have been earmarked for the white and gold prior to his injury, it only illustrates that prior to the event the company had no plan for the Intercontinental Championship ladder match at all, and no interest in making one. I’m not sure whether that reflects worse on the WWE or the Intercontinental Championship… but it certainly doesn’t reflect well on Matthew ‘Zack Ryder’ Cardona.
Many people were pleased for him, which I found a little confusing. After all, ‘Zack Ryder’ isn’t a real person for people to be pleased for. Matt Cardona is a real person, but the win did him no good whatsoever. He clearly wasn’t going to be holding onto the title, and WWE obviously had no interest in a sustained push of any kind. Why would they push someone they’ve spent so long treading into the undercard?
Taking the title off him the very next day only reinforced how little they value his contributions: the win wasn’t a ‘thank you’ to an undercard workhorse, it was a swerve aimed at the WWE Universe.
The saddest part is that Zack Ryder is obviously still over with a large proportion of the WWE crowd. The character is less of a cartoon doofus now, and more likeable as a result. Cardona’s in the best shape of his life, too: that extra size, and the beard, have helped give him an on-screen authority he didn’t have before.
All that - plus Cardona’s real life relationship with Tenille ‘Emma’ Dashwood, one of the most talented female superstars on the roster - has stripped away a lot of the sad sack aura that the Zack Ryder character used to have. If they’d given him even only a few weeks with the title, I really think he could have shown them something.